Film Review: The Seduction of Dr. Fugazzi (2009)

Dr. Anna Fugazzi has it all, she’s young, beautiful and a practicing abnormal psychologist. Something is wrong with Anna though, with the repeated headaches and strange dreams, it isn’t any wonder she’s falling apart.

“Is there truly peace and order behind that calm exterior, or do you simply control your neurosis better than most people?”

I would like to start this review by first stating that The Seduction of Dr. Fugazzi is being distributed by Troma. With a name like that, and Troma backing up the film I had an idea of what I was about to see in my head. Thankfully that idea was washed away and instead I was treated to a decent film that felt like a ride, and was quite beautiful to look at.

Let’s start from the beginning. During the opening credits you see the name October Kingsley quite a bit. She wrote, directed and starred in the film (and she really isn’t too hard on the eyes either). Also during the opening credits you will see a familiar name, Faye Dunaway. This shocked me in a lot of ways, not only was Faye in the film, she is one of the major characters that is needed for the story.

In the beginning of the film we are introduced to Dr. Anna Fugazzi. She sits across from a patient at her desk. The patient is a pedophile who is hypnotized and describing what he sees to his psychiatrist. This scene however was a little hard for me to swallow for one reason only. Dr. Anna Fugazzi’s appearance stated to me that she would be at home in a New York City nightclub, not a psychiatrist office. Her hair is two toned (red and black), she is wearing fishnets and high heels and her cleavage is just bustin’ out. If there are psychiatrists that look like this in the real world, would someone point me to them?

We learn a lot about Anna’s life in the first part of the film. She has a musician boyfriend named Maynard, the two obviously can’t get enough of each other and for all of the perverts out there you get quite a few sex scenes (and apparently they don’t mind sharing each other either). The house did I say house? I mean the mansion they live in is complete including a swimming pool and the kind of decor that would make any goth swoon. Anna Fugazzi’s best friend/mentor is the hammy Professor Elam. I say hammy here because he is dressed rather old fashioned with a top hat and a cane, the character itself is also rather large.

Not only do we get introduced to those two characters we also get introduced to rich party boy Pete, who seems to enjoy renting out clubs for parties, or turning dinner parties into orgies. We also get a whole slew of weirdoes that are in Dr. Fugazzi’s care including the above mentioned pedophile, a woman who is obsessed with her tarot card deck (she refuses to come to an appointment because her cards told her she would be hit by a truck), and a kleptomaniac just to name a few. There is also a strange little character that always seems to have a hair curler rolled into his hair, and he really really likes vicoden.

Things are going well for Dr. Fugazzi until we see her enjoying a lunch date with Professor Elam. As Anna looks at his cane she suddenly sees it sitting in a pool of blood. She immediately starts yelling and we get treated to various scenes of people in bondage gear flashing across the screen. She runs into the bathroom to collect herself and takes a handful of pills informing Professor Elam that she will return once she pulls herself together.

People are either really going to like this movie, or they are not. It is very similar to the works of David Lynch or Stanley Kubrick. The dream sequences come and go so quick there are points where it is almost confusing if you are not paying close enough attention.

With a title like The Seduction of Dr. Fugazzi I honestly didn’t know what to expect and I was pleasantly surprised with a smart little film. There of course is quite a bit of sex in the film not limited to an orgy scene and a particular painful scene involving Anna using a broom on the chained up Maynard. It isn’t however the nudity you would expect in a movie carried by Troma. In fact I am a little surprised to see this film under the Troma banner, surprised but pleased.

If you like strange films like the works of Lynch, Kubrick and even some of Miikes movies I would suggest seeing The Seduction of Dr. Fugazzi, you will be pleasantly surprised. However gore hounds won’t find much here to wet their pallet.